Asa/Anthony fics that only have that relationship tag are showing on AO3 while searching the Aziraphale/Crowley tag. And AO3 won't change it. This is part of a concerning trend in the fandom.
While searching AO3 fics, if you search for the pairing Aziraphale/Crowley, you get results for fics tagged ONLY as Asa/Anthony, because right now the tags are connected and seen as the “same characters”. This has been frustrating for me and many fans, as I do not see them as the same characters and do not want to read those fics. I wrote to AO3 to ask them to separate the tags so they aren’t linked and got the attached response. They will not do it as it was decided to keep them together. This is partially because one of the main tag wranglers for the fandom is someone who liked the ending and has been militant of their defence of it to the point of being exclusionary to anyone that doesn't hold their opinion. They've making fans who disliked it feel unwelcome. I don’t think people like this should be the only authority on tagging for the fandom.
This is part of a larger problem that makes me concerned with the direction the fandom is headed.
Those of us who disliked the finale have been tagging our posts and such appropriately so that people who liked it don’t have to see it. Meanwhile, many people are refusing to properly tag Asanthony art and fics correctly. Even though we’ve repeatedly asked for it. They can post whatever they liked about it on the main tags, while we have to sequester ourselves into corners and use specific tags so they don't see our opinions.
Or, on places like Reddit where you can’t filter so everyone sees everything, we get complaints for us being too toxic or negative if we try to talk about it. This is the internet, people are going to complain. Fan spaces have been used to complain about things people don’t like since the internet was created. I don’t understand what makes GO so different we can’t do that about something that was deeply upsetting to us.
Even the bench, which has always been Aziraphale and Crowley’s, now has Asanthony quotes on there. Fans have been using it as a memorial and now they have to see quotes celebrating other characters that replaced the ones we love, even though Asa and Anthony never went to that bench. It means nothing to them. We’re not allowed to complain or mourn in fan spaces, now we can’t even have a bench that was always theirs? Go find a different one, or use the Tilly’s bookshop or graffiti wall or something for your Asa and Anthony pilgrimages. Write quotes for Aziraphale and Crowley on the bench.
These are all part of a feeling many of us have of being pushed out of fan spaces. Especially after we have tried to compromise. I know there are plenty of people who enjoyed the finale who aren’t doing this. But a portion of that space is and I don’t want to see it continue down a bad path. People shouldn’t have that kind of authority over the whole fan space. I’ve already seen and talked to multiple people who have left the fandom because they feel they are being pushed out, bullied, and silenced. And many have been met with a lack of care about how all this has affected us.
They are the ones that got a happy ending and “everything they ever wanted”. Why are we the ones being pushed out? Why’s it up to us, the ones who got the shit end of the deal, to do all the work to accommodate people? We’re just asking for small things like the tags to be separate, this should be a fair compromise. I don’t understand why we’re getting pushback for a simple request.
after rewatching it's so evident how much the writers (ng) didn't understand aziraphale because GOD he gets treated like a fucking punching bag the whole finale, crowley doesn't even act like he's still in love with him, and the movie actually goes ahead and compares him to fucking michael. not even mentioning that both satan and god poke fun at him (while they have crowley standing there in silence) before annihilating him. i need to fight someone aziraphale get behind me
"There's beauty and poetry in not showing queer romances overtly and leaving kisses and love confessions up to interpretation! <3"
No. In the real world we have actual queer creatives who have to censor themselves and queer themes so that they can make art that doesn't get attacked by bigots. There's no beauty in having to hide or censor your art.
So I won't take the crumbs that the shows are giving me and I'm tired of having to hallucinate my happy endings and follow a trail of crumbs to a dilapidated moldy loaf of bread half eaten by coyotes. Not when queer creatives have to hide to make art. Not in this political climate. I will not accept crumbs anymore from people who have the privilege of showing more but chicken out.
I'm writing again! I have a Good Omens series 3 rewrite on the stairs, 4,000 words in and growing! Just thought I'd share! :)
On a side note, I don't often plug my Patreon, especially since I slowed down SO much in my writing in the last couple of years, but now that I'm producing more again, here's me timidly venturing a mention of it? If you've ever wanted to throw a little support my way, I would absolutely love and be so grateful to have more supporters on my Patreon! That thing is set up for recurring monthly donations, but if a one-time thing is more your thing, you can always find me on PayPal, too, at [email protected] (old school email, haha!). :) No pressure, seriously! Just if you've ever suddenly thought that you'd love to do that. :P
Nah bc I’ve never hated the ending of a show/movie so viscerally that I had to disregard it entirely as canon. Like I can take a lot of shit from writers and I’ve been doing that for as long as I’ve been consuming media but go3 really pushed my buttons so far to the point where I finally went “well you’re definitely feeding me bullshit and I don’t want it.” And honestly it’s SO freeing to not try to convince myself into liking something that I just disagree so heavily with. Yeah, a part of me wishes I liked it but I think I’d be so much worse off because it’s just… so impossibly bad. I just sat there watching the end credits roll and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing on my screen because they gave me 90 minutes of actual NOTHING. For 90 minutes I let them into my house to do some final renovations and they literally fucked around with the precious time I gave them by watching paint dry and making holes in my walls and to top it all off they said “oops we messed up your house, we can’t reverse it” and burnt my house to the ground. I can’t take that seriously for even a second and I’m not going to lmfao
Yeah, I bet GO3 wasn't aiming to talk about probably the most common diseases right now and treat the subject with contempt but here we are.
Because if we see Crowley was given depression that starts in S2 (what's the point of anything) and ends with him sleeping in an alley, not caring that his partner is trying to save them from a horrible eternity-
Then Aziraphale's resignation at the end is sign of his own metal health struggles. Because the angel that could not bring himself to kill one child to save 8 billion humans... When he was determined to avoid one death for the future of all and refused to run away with his beloved either but was adamant to try and speak to his horrible boss, god even - that they clearly didn't know, this angel would want to keep fighting, bring the old universe back and try again. And again. As we see him do over the seasons.
But he didn't. They broke him.
S3 starts with Aziraphale putting on a smile and turn to the Archangels who clearly despise him and try to keep going, as best as he can, with his endless checklists and simulations and whatever else he was trying to do to change their minds, change the plan, change the fate of everything.
When Jesus mentions Crowley this façade crumbles but only we see it. This is an angel who is so tired and lonely and broken, who tried so hard. And when everything and everyone is gone and his partner who did nothing but berate him all day and refused to listen suggests they leave their universe dead because nothing can change, nothing here is fixable and they die with it, asking for a new one, without occult and ethereal forces... without them, he cries and agrees.
I know there are people who don't see this message. And I know the people who worked on it didn't want this to be the message.
But that does not stop it from me and many others (I think) from seeing that way. And being appalled. And hurt.
Aziraphale and Crowley's universe didn't seem any worse or better than our one is. It was our universe. Good Omens was story about how we should fight for our world, our lives, however imperfect, like a bunch of kids in a small English village decided to. Regardless of any life or fate that comes after.
And angels and demons were meant to find and see the same message. Like their adorable and sometimes daft Earth delegates did. That life is not for living for some future that comes later. It's for now. We should fight for now. There does not need to be a war to decide who is best and who gets eternity. Angels and demons were meant to find out that they too are free to want for themselves. Not for some cruel God who laughs at them.
I wanted that message.
Not the one where everything is pointless and hopefully in the next life we find each other.
Good Omens was always (to me) explicitly against that message.
i hate that most of their physical intimacy is haunted to the point where i doubt they got to enjoy any of it. they held hands for miracles. they danced but crowley was panicking about the demons outside. he confessed knowing it was doomed. they kissed but it was out of desperation. finger kiss but they are about to die? held hands again but ah too late they are evaporating.
Season 1 was my happy place for three solid years. I watched it over 100 times. No I was not sitting in front of the TV for all 6 hours each time, but I would put it on and go about my day, puttering around my apartment, cleaning, reading, cooking, etc. It never failed to put a smile on my face and leave me with a warm glow. And I always made a point to listen to the final song and watch the credits all the way to the end and the dedication to Terry. Look, I'm a grown-ass woman in my 60s and sometimes the ending would bring me to tears because it touched something inside of me that I normally keep locked down. I had all the things, the books, cd, DVDs, Funko-Pops, t-shirts, etc. I LOVED IT!
So here's my question:
What the fuck is wrong with you as a human being that you could take something this magical and uplifting and filled with such love and turn it into such an absolutely dark, depressing, nihilistic shitshow???
So we're really supposed to believe that Agnes-mother-fucking-Nutter put all that time and effort into ensuring the world wouldn't end just for a measly seven extra years?
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